Copyright ÂŠ 2017
Hansel G. Pellot PĂŠrez
Design: Hansel G. Pellot
Academic and Professional Portfolio
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This portfolio brings together various architecture
and design projects made during the course of
my student career at the School Of Architecture
of the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. It is
an effort to compile and synthesize a large part
of my professional training, including works that I
consider relevant to the learning of many different
knowledges. Here are displayed from my first years
of the career, research and capstone thesis project,
in addition to student exchange trips and other
design works. The next pages are a reflection of the
skills and knowledge I have acquired during these
years and have formed who I am.

University of Puerto Rico. I am highly organized and efficient
individual, who believes in the power of architecture, design and
research to effect good in the world. My goal is to help better shape the
built environment through the creation of beautiful, functional
architecture and to communicate good ideas. To these ends I will
continue to work, learn, and immerse myself in the field in order to
create to the best of my ability.
Seeking a full time entry-level position in the architectural field.

“Naively I may turn back into romanticism by finding again a sense of purity and
beauty on those objects. The quality of architecture is best shown on its ruins, it’s
said.”
Iñaki Bergera, Twentysix (Abandoned) Gasoline Stations

19

ABSTRACT
E

very day, at any time, we go out to
the streets, without paying attention
to the environment that surrounds us.
Accustomed to the daily scenario, we
let escape many things, particularly
repetitive building typologies and
elements. From the built landscape we
usually ignore disused or abandoned
buildings and sites, as if they were not
there, perhaps because they are not a
destination or lack any social purpose.

20

Walking and cycling allows us to be
more in contact with our surroundings.
This has sparked my interest in capturing
photographs of abandoned places that
make up the daily landscape in Puerto
Rico. Dedicated to this task, on a trip
from Bayamón to Isabela along the PR-2
highway, I managed to count nine closed
gas stations in just a few hours, as if it
were a plague. Another six abandoned

stations in the Metropolitan Area came to various artists [such as Edward Ruscha,
mind, which I have seen for several years Eric Tabuchi, among others] who use
different means to interpret them. Ruscha
already.
being the first with his book “Twentysix
The abandonment of gas stations is a
Gasoline Stations”, other artists echo their
phenomenon that proliferates locally and
work using the number 26. Equally, this
internationally. This research studies the
research leads to an artistic project that
history of the gas station in Puerto Rico
echoes Ruscha, exposing 26 abandoned
and the multiple factors attributed to the
gasoline stations in Puerto Rico.
closure and abandonment of gas stations
The research in general presented
in the last decade. The different design
typologies, location and context are methodological difficulties regarding
identified, and the relationship between the accuracy of the information available
these characteristics and the closure of for the finding and documentation
these structures. In addition, we argued of the closed stations. To date no
about the visual impact they cause in the agency has an inventory and it is
everyday landscape and the effect it has difficult to pinpoint an exact number
on the people. In these arguments we see of how many abandoned gas stations
topics as the “non-places” of Marc Augé, are in Puerto Rico. Althoughthe data
founded suggested 200 approximately.
and other similar theories.
At the time of the investigation, 86
The gasoline station is an icon of the
stations were documented, including
American road and automobile culture.
abandoned, closed and “recycled”
As such symbol, internationally,
stations. The documented regions were
conceptually has attracted the attention of
the Metropolitan Area, most of the North

coast and some municipalities of the East
and South of the Island.
During the investigation we incur in
several subjects that open the possibility
to deeper future investigations. The
possibility of reusing an abandoned
gas station for other purposes, either
â&#x20AC;&#x153;recyclingâ&#x20AC;? or remodeling. Rehabilitation
and redevelopment of damaged land, are
other topics that would require further
research.
While photographic documentation
was vital in the assembly of this puzzle,
the stations, in themselves, were the
most revealing documents of their own
happening. The abandoned gasoline
station is summarized as one of the most
important subjects in the Puerto Rican
architectural scene and as the symbol of
the depression of road culture. In the end,
with a sense of purity, it reveals its true
architectural quality, calling itself the
ruin of the 21st century.

“The possibilities are endless for these sites; we just need one person with a big
idea who’s ready to take on the challenge.”
Ivy Hughes, Vacant Gas Stations: What If?

29

ABSTRACT
B

oth in Puerto Rico and the world,
abandoned gas stations have
proliferated for various reasons,
regardless of their typology, location
or context. The abandonment of
stations causes a negative impact, both
environmental and visual in the urban
landscape, leading them into oblivion
for being useless. On the island there
are hundreds of abandoned gas stations,
which most are at very busy intersections,
meaning they can have great demand for
real estate. Because these businesses are
not viable, the owner does not take care
of the site and it becomes a problem.

30

Strategies that have transformed these
businesses into meeting and leisure
spaces have been carried out at many
stations. Gas station owners have added
programs and products of high demand,
such as craft beers, food and leisure areas,

to attract customers. However, many
abandoned stations have been recycled
to give these places a second life. They
have been redeveloped as barber shops,
restaurants, bars, car wash, food-trucks
plazas, and public cinemas, among
others, always reusing the existing
structure and maintaining the aesthetics
of the gas station. But gasoline stations
are designed to fulfill one function: sell
and dispense fuel. The program to be
proposed for the redevelopment of the
abandoned gas station will not seek to
reopen these business for sale of gasoline.
The selected site will be used to develop
a social purpose program, which may be
mixed use.
This project explains these lands are
Brownfields, that is to say, a real estate
or the expansion, redevelopment or
reuse of the site whose use can imply a
complication by the presence or possible
presence of a dangerous substance or
contaminant. Which implies that before

any other program is built in that place
should identify and eliminate any risk to
human health.
We revisit Marc Augé’s “Non-Places”
theories and other similar like Edward
Relph’s “Place and Placelessness”
and how these conditions occur
simultaneously everywhere and how
they affect abandoned gas stations.
Also it is explained that these nonplaces become “solid urban waste”,
“real estate corpses”, or “public
hindrances”, buildings that are there
without being anything, immersed in
an urban context that demands spaces
and activities.
The abandoned gas station chosen for
the project is the former ESSO station,
located at Los Angeles Marginal Street
(Luis Muñoz Rivera Expressway), stop
14 in Miramar. We study what we could
about its history and the urban conditions
that it presents, and current urban

development plans in that area. But the
thing that caught the attention was the
traffic of cyclists and runners that transit
that area every day and the sporting
events that occur in that zone. We talked
about how many cities in the world
have been betting on the recovery of the
bicycle as a means of transport, and how
San Juan, although at a very slow pace,
it’s doing it too.
We return to Marc Augé, who also
writes a book entitled “Eloge de la
bicyclette”, where he says: “Cycling is
a humanism that opens with renewed
strength the doors of utopia and a
more hopeful future: the symbol of
an ecological future for the City of
tomorrow and an urban project that
could perhaps reconcile society with
itself.” If Augé says that the bicycle is
a symbol of utopia, we could say that
the abandoned gas station is in fact a
symbol of dystopia.

The former Esso Station, will become
a Bicycle Club, that will advocate for the
local cycling culture and will promote the
diversity of the pedal. The bicycle will
be the subject that reconfigures the
space, appropriating a place designed
for the car, thus claiming its place in
the city. As a way of protest, against
the overuse of the automobile and in
favor of cycling culture and education.
In conjunction with this station, a cycle
path master plan will be developed which
will connect to the existing cycle routes
to connect two other former gas station
to be bicycle clubs This network will also
interconnect different universities, parks
and places of interest.
Redeveloping this gas station for
the bicycle seeks to establish harmony
with the environment by promoting
sustainable mobility alternatives. At the
same time creating accessible spaces
for recreation and social activities
that promote creativity and economic

development. It is also an act of claiming
the right to free mobility, of the bicycle
as an active means of transport. It
seeks to achieve a community that
supports cycling and local commerce
while working to reduce pollution and
excessive use of the automobile. The
bicycle club will be a platform that will
bring a cultural transformation towards
a sustainable city.

he Vélo Station is a bicycle club
located at Miramar, Santurce, in
an abandoned former Esso station. This
building is a prototype design for the
reuse of discarded gas stations as a space
appropriation by the bicycle claiming its
place in the city.
The project proposes to reuse the
abandoned station or part of it. That in
itself it becomes symbol of evolution and
cyclist culture, as once it was symbol of
the road culture. This is an act to claim
the right to free mobility, of the bicycle as
an active means of transport. In this case,

40

concrete, as the brutality of the city, and
steel, which speaks of the lightness of the
bicycle and gives an industrial image that
responds to the area where it is located.
Wrapped in a translucent skin facade that
provides protection against weather and
at night it allows it to becomes a light
The new building presents itself as
screen between city and nature.
a sculpture in the landscape due to its
elliptical shape, product of the speed and
movement of the bicycle. At the same
time it works as an extension of ‘‘Parque
Central’’and the ‘‘Paseo Lineal’’, weaving
the mangrove landscape with the city. As
for materiality there is a contrast between
the canopy of the petrol dispensers area
is preserved to relocate bicycle repairing
stations and parking. The former store
building is demolished to make space for
the new station that requires other types
of programs and image.

he RPCC emerge from the
analysis of the urban density
versus the programmatic voids of
it context. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a result of carving a
mass to mold a form that follows
its function. The program consist
of an Art Gallery, Cafeteria, Library,
Amphitheatre, Artist Studios, and
a Public Plaza. All surrounded by a
metallic veil that gives continuity to
the urban facade of the Ponce de
LeĂłn Ave. in Rio Piedras.

asa Mita was the former home
of Juanita García Peraza,
founder of the Mita Congregation
in Puerto Rico. At the moment the
building is in a state of ruin but it
conserves a historical and cultural
significance for the followers of Mita
and the urban center of Arecibo. The
project proposes the restoration
of the remaining shell of the house
and the addition of a new internal
structure for the Mita museum. In
addition, an annex building will
serve as an ecumenical chapel for
the Christian community. There is
also an apartment for the caretaker
of the CMM+C and a crypt for
relocating the remains of Juanita
or for another important member of
the Congregation.

he SJP3Apt is located in the
historic zone of San Juan,
in a high-traffic area of touristic,
commercial, social and cultural
activity. The Block Type Building
is located in two sites divided by a
street, placing 2 towers in each site,
connected to each other to form a
single building. The project explores
modular
housing
concepts
with more than 4 predetermined
typologies. From studios to 3
bedroom apartments, simplex and
duplex, which allow the addition of
neighboring modules to expand
each house according to the needs
of each resident. A small shopping
center is located in the first level
along whit the first level of parking
and service area. In the second
level there are more spaces for
commercial rent and a public plaza
overlooking at the pier.

he Bank of China wants to open a
branch in Puerto Rico and they want
to locate it in the banking area of Hato
Rey’s Milla de Oro.” The building intends
to fill a void in the city context, locating in
a prime site, right next to the train station,
the “Choliseo”, “AquaExpreso” and the
“Paseo Lineal del Caño”. The design
raises a 5-story building with a Hi-Tech
architectural language that is consistent
with the Bank’s worldwide image.

6

W
0"
7'1 mts.
d0
43 .845
N 45

This project address the integration
of
multiple
areas:
programming,
design, technology and structures that
synthesizes all encompassing problems
that elucidate the multilayered nature of
architecture. Code compliance evaluation,
local zoning codes, structural systems,
construction
materials,
mechanical
and electrical systems are evaluated,
100 analyzed, considered and applied before
being developed into the design.

he TBCC is located in the Tolosa
district, where the train station and
the old railroad sheds are located. The
new architecture rises above the existing
buildings and perpendicular to the axis of
the sheds and the train tracks. Making an
X mark indicating where Tolosa is located
from great distance and connecting the
two parts of the city that are divided by
the train. The building is divided into three
parts, Business, Plaza, and Conventions,
and it also incorporates a new train
station, leaving the existing one and
the sheds for the Railway Museum. In
addition, the rest of the vast empty site
is developed to make new blocks for
housing and mixed use programs, and
the new Park of Tolosa.